Iraq's parliament passed a law today to let members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party return to public life, winning Washington's swift praise for meeting a benchmark aimed at reconciling warring sects.
Washington had been pressing Iraq's Shia Islamist-led government to pass the new law as one of a series of steps to draw the minority Sunni Arab community that held sway under Saddam closer into the political process.
"This law preserves the rights of the Iraqi people after the crimes committed by the Baath Party while also benefiting the innocent members of the party. This law provides a balance," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.Mirembe Nantongo, US embassy spokeswoman, said: "We congratulate the Iraqi people on the passage of the bill. It is an important step towards national reconciliation and demonstrates that the political process is working in Iraq."Iraq's failure to pass the bill last year had been seen as one of the main signs that political progress toward reconciliation was stalled even as security improved.The Accountability and Justice bill replaces an existing law that Sunnis had complained amounted to collective punishment against their sect.
Washington had introduced de-Baathification when it administered Iraq in 2003-04. A committee was tasked with purging senior Baath Party members from government and tightly restricted the employment of junior party members.
Thousands of Iraqis, many of them Sunni Arabs, were fired from government jobs after Saddam was toppled in the US-led invasion in 2003, fuelling a long-running insurgency against Iraq's new Shia rulers and US forces.